This document provides the information you might have about the ServiceBox accounting connector tool.

Common Questions

How do I download and setup the accounting connector?

Is there a recommended way to use the connector?

The accounting connector for ServiceBox was written to allow two-way synchronization between your accounting file and ServiceBox of customers and, if using QuickBooks, job sites. However, we recommend that customer data be maintained in ServiceBox and updates synced down to your accounting file. This will prevent issues with changes being done in both systems and potentially being overwritten during the sync process. In the settings screen, you can turn off the sync of customers from accounting to ServiceBox by unchecking the 'Add/Update customers from accounting to ServiceBox' checkbox in the Export Settings tab of the settings dialog.

If you are new to ServiceBox, a great way to get started is to upload your customer information from your accounting file into the system. You can turn on the setting discussed in the previous paragraph temporarily so that customers will upload into ServiceBox and then turn it off, maintaining customer information in ServiceBox and synching it with accounting.

If you are new to using the accounting connector or just want to have a little more control over what gets into your accounting system, we recommend that turn on the 'Preview customer actions before importing into accounting'. This will give you a preview screen before any customers or jobsites are imported into your accounting system, allowing you to see what is about to happen and choose which actions you would like to happen.

When I run the sync I am getting a screen that lists conflicts, what am I supposed to do?

This screen appears when the sync finds issues that it doesn't know how to resolve. One example might be a customer that it is trying to download from ServiceBox has the same name as a customer in your accounting file. You will have an option to link these two customers together. You can choose to do this by selecting the conflict in the top list and clicking the 'Resolve Automatically' button. When you click OK on this form, the connector will link these two customers together and you won't get this conflict message again.

In the bottom list of the screen are any conflicts that the connector cannot manually resolve. An example of this would be having two customers in ServiceBox with the same name. Since the accounting file cannot have two customers with the same name, there is no way to automatically resolve the issue. Instead you will have to manually edit the customer in ServiceBox to have a unique name. For individuals, the company name can be appended to the individuals first name and last name to provide for a more unique name going into the accounting system. This is configured in the settings screen. For companies, this is just company name. 

If you do not understand the issue in the bottom list, feel free to contact Jobbox support via the feedback button in ServiceBox or via email. and we will look into the issue. 

I've linked a customer in ServiceBox to a customer in accounting by accident, is there a way to remove this link?

Yes there is! Just go edit the customer (or jobsite) in ServiceBox. At the bottom of the screen will be a checkbox indicating that the customer is linked to a customer in your accounting software. Just uncheck the checkbox and click 'OK'. This will remove the link and the customer can be re-imported as a new customer or linked to an existing customer.

Is there a way to 're-import' an invoice? 

If you are using QuickBooks, you can delete the invoice from QuickBooks and the system will ask if you want to re-import the next time you sync. Unfortunately, there is no way to do this from Sage. If you are using Sage or do not want to delete the invoice from QuickBooks, you will have to void the invoice in your accounting software and create a new invoice in ServiceBox. When you void an invoice in your accounting software, the connector will ask you if you want to void it in ServiceBox too the next time you sync.

QuickBooks Questions

Why does the connector require QuickBooks to be open to run?

I click the sync button and the connector freezes with the message 'Testing Connections.', what is happening? 

If this is the first time you are running the connector, you need to grant permission to the connector to open your QuickBooks file. If you go to QuickBooks and see this screen:

If you click on one of the options starting with 'Yes' the connector will continue the sync process. The last option will not require you to open QuickBooks before running the sync. This option will only work with the connector if the 'Keep QuickBooks running for quick startups' is set because we require that QuickBooks be running to use the connector for performance reasons. The setting appears in QuickBooks under the general tab in preferences as illustrated below.

I am getting this error message and don't know how to fix it:

This usually happens because QuickBooks is already open but there is a different company file open then the one the connector is trying to use. To fix this, just open the file that the connector is trying to open and try the sync again.

Sage 50 Accounting Questions

The connector is asking for a user name and password in the setup screen. What do I enter here?

If you are using a single user license for Sage, there is only one user, by default called sysadmin and by default this user has no password. Just enter the user id sysadmin and leave the password blank unless you have changed the default user.

I am getting the following message, what do I do?

This message means the user that you have entered into the setup is not allowed to access Sage 50 through the connector. To fix this, go into Sage and click the menu item Setup->Set Up Users. Modify the user that you are using to connect to Sage and under 'Rights with Third-Party Products' select 'Read/Write'. For example:

At this time you may want to add a password for the user as you are granting it to access your Sage file through other applications which makes your file less secure. If you do so, don't forget to update your setup!

I'm getting a message saying 'Someone is already using the program under this name. Please use a different user name or try again later'. How do I fix this?

Sage does not allow the same user to access your file from two different connections at the same time. If you have a multi-user license, you can get around this by adding another user to Sage to use only for the connector. If you have a single-user license or you don't have any users left in your license, you will have to make sure that the user the connector is using to connect is not already connected to Sage.